1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of data processing systems. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved system and method for processing message attachments between a data service and a data processing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
E-mail has become an irreplaceable tool in today's business environment. Virtually all corporate employees rely on e-mail in one way or another to communicate both externally with customers and internally with other employees.
Current e-mail standards allow files to be “attached” and transmitted along with e-mail messages. The most common file attachment standard is the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (“MIME”) standard, which encodes files on the transmitting end (e.g., using binary-to-ASCII encoding) and subsequently decodes the files on the receiving end. A header is added to the files which includes an indication of the type of data contained in the files and the encoding method used. Secure MIME (“S/MIME”) is a version of MIME that adds Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (“RSA”) encryption for secure transmission.
If the client receiving the e-mail message has the proper software installed, once the attachments are decoded, they may be viewed, executed and/or edited by the message recipient. One problem which exists, however, is that not all clients are equipped with the software required to process all types of message attachments. For example, if an attachment is compressed using a particular compression tool (e.g., such as Winzip™), the message recipient will not be able to open the attachment unless he/she has the compression tool installed on his/her client computer. Similarly, if the attachment is in a particular document format (e.g., Adobe's Portable Document Format), the recipient will not be able to view or edit the attachment unless support for that format is installed on his/her client computer.
Attachments are particularly problematic for wireless and/or portable data processing devices which, quite frequently, do not support standard file formats and executables. Thus, while many wireless/portable devices are capable of connecting to the Internet to download e-mail messages, the message attachments may be unusable.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved system and method for intelligently processing e-mail message attachments. What is also needed is a system and method which will work without the need for additional software on the receiving client computer or wireless/portable data processing device.